Fortitude and southern New Zealand
Richards reports Fortitude at the Auckland Islands in 1843, with whaling limited by severe weather and losses. Fortitude returned to Hobart in October 1843 with sperm and right whale oil and baleen. Subsequent voyages used southern New Zealand waters and called at ports to obtain water, potatoes, pigs and firewood. Richards recounts Māori involvement in provisioning and the hiring of an anchor near the Molyneux/Clutha mouth.
Across Cook Strait and into the south
Fortitude is part of the maritime traffic connecting Kāpiti, Port Underwood and southern ports. Whaling crews and trading ships moved through a network in which a local season could be linked to voyages far beyond the island.
The documentary record
The 1843 Fortitude return is a lead for the vessel’s movements. It should be paired with dated shipping notices rather than used to infer a catch at a particular station.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- Did shore whaling rapidly reduce southern right whale numbers?
- Fortitude 1843 return
- Southern right whale depletion study
- Captain Charles Bayley: Whaling Master 1813–1875
- Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone
- Eleven ships off Kāpiti in 1837
- Wallaby crew absconded at Kāpiti
- Wallaby travelled between Kāpiti and southern ports
- Wallaby 1842 right-whale catch
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Continue with these connected accounts. Each opens a separate book with its own evidence and perspective.